Will Self-Driving Cars Become Car Bombs?

Autonomous vehicles, such as self-driving cars, could become weapons in the hands of hackers, says a report called “The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence.” What this means is that your self-driving car could theoretically drive you off the cliff because your ex-husband is now controlling the car from a laptop 300 miles away.

With advances in artificial intelligence, the risks of hackers using such technologies to launch malicious attacks are increasing, top researchers warned in a report released on Wednesday.

They could use such AI to turn consumer drones and autonomous vehicles into potential weapons, for instance, said researchers from universities such Oxford, Cambridge and Yale, as well as organizations like the Elon Musk-backed OpenAI, in a report.

Self-driving cars, for example, could be tricked into misinterpreting a stop sign that might cause road accidents, while a swarm of drones, controlled by an AI system, could be used for surveillance or launching quick, coordinated attacks, the report said.

Intelligent machines, according to the report, could lower the cost of carrying out cyberattacks by automating certain, labor-intensive tasks and more effectively scoping out potential targets.

One example the report pointed to was “spear phishing,” where attackers use personalized messages for each potential target, in order to steal sensitive information or money.

Paul Gordon is the publisher and editor of iState.TV. He has published and edited newspapers, poetry magazines and online weekly magazines.
He is the director of Social Cognito, an SEO/Web Marketing Company. You can reach Paul at pg@istate.tv

Without the coercive enterprise’s trustworthy department known as the FCC, how would we manage our own communications affairs? Why, we would have SOMALIA on the freaking airways? Who would build the communications roads?!!!! […]